"Wanton lust" and "servility to absolutely unchained carnal desire and bestiality" ruled the minds of the four convicts during the December 2012 gang-rape of Nirbhaya, the Supreme Court observed while upholding their death sentences on Friday.
Some extracts from the Supreme Court judgment:
* "The present case is one where there can be no denial that the narrative is long, the investigation has been cautious and to bring home the charge, modern and progressive scientific methods have been adopted."
* "The cold evening of Delhi on 16th December, 2012 could not have even remotely planted the feeling in the twenty-three year old lady, a para-medical student, who had gone with her friend to watch a film ... that in the next few hours, the shattering cold night that was gradually stepping in would bring with it the devastating hour of darkness when ... she would be a prey to the savage lust of a gang of six, face brutal assault and become a playful thing that could be tossed around at their wild whims and her private parts would be ruptured to give vent to their pervert sexual appetite, unthinkable and sadistic pleasure."
* "The attitude, perception, the bestial proclivity, inconceivable self-obsession and individual centralism of the six made the young lady to suffer immense trauma and, in the ultimate eventuate, the life-spark that moves the bodily frame got extinguished in spite of availing of all the possible treatment that the medical world could provide."
* The (Convicts) "pulled out the internal organs of the prosecutrix in the most savage and inhuman manner that caused grave injuries which ultimately annihilated her life."
* Referring to the various bite marks which were observed on the body of the woman, the court said it pointed to "mental perversion" and "inconceivable brutality" inflicted by the convicts.After performing the "gruesome act", they divided the loot among themselves,
* "... it is absolutely obvious that the accused persons had found an object for enjoyment in her and, as is evident, they were obsessed with the singular purpose sans any feeling to ravish her as they liked, treat her as they felt ..."
* "... the gross sadistic and beastly instinctual pleasures came to the forefront when they, after ravishing her, thought it to be just a matter of routine to throw her alongwith her friend out of the bus and crush them."
* "The casual manner with which she was treated and the devilish manner in which they played with her identity and dignity is humanly inconceivable. It sounds like a story from a different world where humanity has been treated with irreverence."
* "The appetite for sex, the hunger for violence, the position of the empowered and the attitude of perversity, to say the least, are bound to shock the collective conscience which knows not what to do."
* "It is manifest that the wanton lust, the servility to absolutely unchained carnal desire and slavery to the loathsome bestiality of passion ruled the mindset of the appellants (convicts) to commit a crime which can summon with immediacy "tsunami" of shock in the mind of the collective and destroy the civilised marrows of the milieu in entirety."